'Buycott' over boycott — Mike Huckabee's response to SNL skit on 'God's Not Dead'

A scene from the SNL parody skit entitled 'God is a Boob Man.'(YouTube/SNL screenshot)

Rather than indignantly call for a boycott of shows and ideas that offend the Christian faith, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee is calling for something better – a "buycott."

According to Huckabee, who recently penned an op-ed piece published in Fox News, while the idea of a boycott is to stop patronising the things that Christians don't agree with, it is actually helping generate publicity for these things and inadvertedly promoting them in the process, as in the case of a "Saturday Night Live" (SNL) skit poking fun at the Christian movie "God's Not Dead 2."

The parody skit entitled "God is a Boob Man" immediately earned the ire of Christian groups who criticised the skit for disrespecting Christians as well as homosexuals.

"God is not thin-skinned. But he does demand reverence. If you have any brains at all you don't pitch yourself against someone who created all things, the God of the Bible.They don't have to apologise to Christians [but] when you come against God and the Holy Spirit who are one and the same, you are bringing upon yourself eternal condemnation," actor Pat Boone said in an interview with WND.

But simply staging a boycott is not enough. In his piece, Huckabee introduced the idea of a "buycott," which combines the idea of refraining from patronising products that you don't agree with and adding to it the practice of patronising the products that you do agree with.

"I like comedy and satire and I wouldn't call for SNL to be censored because that doesn't prove anything or make things better. Let them say what they wish. But let's also mobilise and do as we wish. And if we don't agree with the messages coming out of Hollywood, we need to buycott the good and show studios and filmmakers alike that we will put our money behind those who make films that promote biblical truth," Huckabeee said.